PxtlDave Chappelle Criticizes Free Speech in America at Saudi Arabia Comedy Festival
T00l_shed
TheReturnOfPEBI mean … a TV host just got fired/scathed/re-hired for talking about a murder at a political rally.
So … maybe the USA is not doing well with free speech.
It’s not, and criticizing it is fair, but… from Saudi Arabia? The Trump admin is basically modelling themselves off their shit at this point. If he really felt this way in general, he wouldn’t have performed at this show in the first place. Criticizing the way free speech is handled in one country while in another country known for chopping up journalists is tone-deaf and comes off as self-serving.
“I’m starting to think we expect too much from our clowns”
this quote is the best thing that i have to offer.
Ace T'KenBad title. He’s criticizing the state of free speech in America citing the Jimmy Kimmel cancellation.
jeffwI don’t think anyone thought he was criticizing free speech. Yes, it’s a bad title, but it’s still hilarious to go to Saudi Arabia and pretend like they have more free speech rights
Aatube
OpenStarsReading the comments here, a LOT of people seemed to think that he was criticizing free speech. Like, no curiosity whatsoever, just jump straight into judgement. 🙃
a LOT of people seemed to think that he was criticizing free speech
The headline literally says “Dave Chappelle Criticizes Free Speech”, so that’s quite understandable.
Bean soup phenomenon: the comment I replied to, with >100 upvotes, said:
I don’t think anyone thought he was criticizing free speech
Also, curiosity might involve digging deeper beyond merely reading a title, particularly since those are well-known these days for being click bait (titles I mean, even in cases where the articles themselves are not).
Think a little more about what you are trying to say here… that people are curious, that they did not simply judge upon merely reading the title, trusting others to get something right but then feeling the need to add onto that regardless?
Of course it is understandable. This is how right-wing polities are being enacted all across the globe currently: using well-established methodologies that offer tried and true results. I “understand” that all too well.
Chappelle has always been tone-deaf about many things, he’s just more obvious about it since he’s older. Glad more and more people are noticing his hypocrisy
otterIn what way? There’s this, and the punching down / anti-trans rhetoric thing, but it feels like you’re talking about something else entirely.
Didn’t he buy up and invest in the entire town and then extort them into doing his bidding or something?
At a Yellow Springs (Ohio) village‑council meeting in December 2021 he warned the council that he would pull his multi‑million‑dollar investment—plans for a restaurant and a comedy club—if they approved a zoning change that would allow new duplexes, townhouses and a parcel set aside for affordable housing. He said
“I’ve invested millions of dollars in this town. If you push this thing through, what I’m investing in is no longer applicable… I am not bluffing. I will take it all off the table.
“I cannot believe you would make me audition for you. You look like clowns… I will take it all off the table.”
His main complaint was that the affordable‑housing would sit right next to the site he intended to develop for his restaurant and comedy club which would affect their commercial viability.
The village council ultimately scrapped the affordable housing plan.
he is such a NIMBY
its was obvious when he became anti-trans, and when right wingers were flocking to his shows.
Die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
It’s so true yet so sad
hes becoming a degenerate villian.
Makes it so easy to find the people who don't give a fuck about women when they suck the Saudi teats so openly
This was harsh. Extremely funny but also harsh
Not wrong though
Counterpoint: If America gave a fuck about women it
Wouldn’t have bought oil from a repressive regime that suppresses woman’s rights for decades
Elected a pedophile rapist who engaged in the trafficking of girls.
Unless you’re saying supporting either nation implies a lack of support for women. Which would certainly be a logical position.
I am intimately familiar with the ongoing hatred for women among Americans. Supreme Court rulings, legislative action, and modern campaigns for a return to lives of drudgery and involuntary childbearing are not even trying to sugarcoat the fact that we are considered lesser beings, despite being necessary for population growth.
Perhaps we can have a slightly more granular system than giving a fuck, yes/no, 1 or 0, black and white. May I suggest perhaps we count how many fucks a country has to give for women? On that scale, we would properly see that the US gives far, far more rucks about women than Saudi Arabia. I’ve been there. Do not casually equate the two.
Yes we can have a granular system but then do we acknowledge:
Saudi Arabia has made more progress in the right direction (though dictator driven) while the US has elected a rapist, pedophile trafficker of girls who is keen on undoing progress on woman’s rights? One who was elected by a majority of voters which suggests that millions agree with his worldview.
That neither country respects women, even if one has developed more protections overall.
Whether your god is Capitalism or a religious deity, women are seen as having less value (monerarily or spiritually).
Please don’t oversimplify my efforts to bring nuance to this discussion. Making a simple Saudi Arabia is worse than the US statement without appropriate context opens the door to two inhumane outcomes that I cannot tolerate.
The dehumanization of people in Saudi Arabia for having perceivably less progressive values. We can disagree with people and their value system without forgetting their humanity. Unfortunately such arguments were used during the colonial era by Western powers to justify inumerable genocides.
The dismissal of the challenges faces by women in the US because women in other nations have it worse.
So while I firmly beleive both countries are in the category of ‘Needs Improvement’ I don’t want oversimplified arguments to be used as fuel for inhumane thoughts or actions.
☂️-Americans railing these comedians but still consuming American bullshit culture is sad.
TrickDacy
railway692So what did he actually say?
“Right now in America, they say that if you talk about Charlie Kirk, that you’ll get canceled,” Chappelle told an audience of 6,000, according to The New York Times. “I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m gonna find out.” He then added, “It’s easier to talk here than it is in America.”
Well, that sounds… accurate. Doesn’t excuse the other things he’s said, but… yea.
ImADifferentBirdI mean, not really. If he really thinks it’s easier to talk there than here, he should make a bonesaw joke on stage in Riyadh.
SA gave rules to the court jesters that went there, you cant criticize SA, or MSB, or islam in anyway, even inneundos or implying.
No they don’t give a fuxk about insulting Islam. Many forign performers shitted on Islam so hard on stage there, and they doubled their pay for it and reinvited them agaim. They just shove it alongside because it’d look bad if they only said can’t criticize the government
Jerb322I wonder how that went over. It’s obviously criticizing America, but really at the expense of SA by saying their free speech is shit. (Which if you think about it violates the terms of the contract someone else posted in this thread.)
Sorry to tell you but Carlin was also part of “the club”
He was way too rich to be one of us, even if he made money pretending to be.
Where in your mind is this hard bright line
Hes the one who created the concept, the hard right line was on him to define
Say what you will about repression of free speech in Saudi Arabia (and there is a lot they could be said), at least with a contract you know where the line is. At least the royalty family knows they’re not proponents of free speech.
America is in that awkward teenage phase of not knowing who they are right now, leaving a lot of ambiguity around free speech.
I appreciate Saudi Arabia’s clarity. Even if they are objectively wrong.
Sundray
Skullgridmeanwhile…
Tim Dillon Just Got Fired from Riyadh Comedy Festival
Never heard of this guy, but from his quotes in the article he doesn’t seem funny at all?
wildflowerJim Jefferies, Jimmy Carr, Kevin Hart, Pete Davidson… I was surprised to see these names on the lineup, what a bunch of sellouts.
This is from their contracts (found on www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-30/…/105833686):
What is the Riyadh Comedy Festival? The Saudi Arabia event stirring controversy in Hollywood
The Riyadh Comedy Festival stars A-list comedians like Peter Davidson, but despite its blockbuster acts, it has copped backlash for what one human rights organisation says is a "whitewashing" of a "brutal repression of free speech".
Jimmy Carr isn’t a surprise.
moondoggieDo jump scares count as surprises? If so, then frequently.
lichtmetzgerYup, that guy just looooves the money. At least he openly admits it in his performances.
He was named in the tax evasion offshore account. The cunt is a traitor to his own country.
M137I couldn’t give less of a fuck if anyone’s a traitor to their own country in that way. The tax evasion is bad because of ethics, not because he “betrayed his country”. It didn’t have any effect on his lifestyle but he chose to do it anyway, it’s all about him being a greedy fuck and not about Nationalism.